The Ghostbusters Ruling

When a woman sells her home and doesn't disclose that friendly ghosts haunt it, the subsequent court case leads to the New York Supreme Court officially declaring the house haunted.

In 1989, Helen Ackley sold the 18-room Victorian mansion that she'd lived in for 24 years. Located at 1 Laveta Place in Nyack, New York, overlooking the Hudson River, and lovingly restored by Helen and her late husband when they first purchased it in the 1960s, it was the perfect home for the Stambovskys, a Wall Street Trader and his wife, who purchased it. Except for one thing--the house was haunted.

Helen Ackley was proud of her ghosts, and seemed to consider them close friends.

When a local architect mentioned the house's paranormal reputation to the new buyer, Stambovsky immediately sued to get his down payment back, and refused to move into the home. That led to a court case, widely known as the Ghostbusters Ruling, that went to the New York Supreme Court--twice--and cumulated with a pun-filled ruling that quoted the ghost from Shakespeare's Hamlet, as well as the hit 1984 movie Ghostbusters. The judge had spoken: "as a matter of law, the house is haunted."

Highlights include:
• The ghost of a Revolutionary War naval officer
• A fixer-upper with ghosts
• A spirit-approved paint job

For the shownotes and sources, visit buriedsecretspodcast.com.

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